1901: First Atlantic wireless
Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. In Newfoundland, Canada Marconi received the message, simply the Morse Code signal for the
letter S, after it travelled over 2,000 miles from Cornwall, England. Marconi’s earlier wireless efforts went largely unappreciated. After his transatlantic transmission, his discoveries received world attention. In 1909, he received the Nobel Prize in physics.
2003
Paul Martin Jr. becomes Prime Minister of
Canada. 1992
In Scotland, the divorced Princess Anne marries
Timothy Laurence.
1988
In England, a train crash at Clapham Junction, just outside London, kills 35 people and injures another 100.
1980
American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at auction for a notebook containing writings by Leonardo
da Vinci. 1975
In England, the Balcombe Street siege ends in London, as four
IRA gunmen release two hostages and hand themselves into the police.
1969
16 people are killed in Milan,
Italy, in what is known as the Piazza Fontana massacre, as a bomb planted the by the
right wing group, Ordine Nuovo, explodes in a bank in Milan.
1967
The
Court of Appeal in England overturns Rolling Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones’ 9 month jail sentence foe possession of drugs, ordering him to instead pay a fine and place him on
probation. 1964
Kenya becomes a republic with
Jomo Kenyatta as its first President.
1963
Kenya gains independence from Britain
1955
In America, the Ford Foundation makes the biggest donation to
charity the world had yet seen: $500,000,000 to hospitals, medical schools, and colleges.
1937
During the battle for Nanking in the Sino-Japanese War, the U.S. gunboat Panay is attacked and sunk by Japanese warplanes in Chinese waters.
1936
In
China, in what is known as the
Xi'an Incident, Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped by his own generals and forced to call a truce with the communist’s and form a united front against the
Japanese. 1917
The First World War: More than 500 French soldiers, returning from fighting in Italy, are killed when their train derails in Modane,
France. 1913
Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous painting,
the Mona Lisa - stolen from the
Louvre Gallery in
Paris - is found in the bedroom of a small hotel in Florence, Italy.
1897
The Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte is formally founded.
1960
American tennis player Tracy Austin.1959
Fashion designer Jasper Conran.1946
Brazilian motor racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi.1931
British entertainer Lionel Blair.1929
English dramatist and playwright John Osborne. Most famous work: Look Back In Anger (1956).1915
American singer/film
actor Francis (Frank) Albert Sinatra. Born in New Jersey, USA.
1893
American actor Edward G.Robinson. Born in
Romania as Emmanuel Goldenberg. Best known for portraying 'tough guys' in films such as Little Caesar (1930) and Key Largo (1948). Dies in 1979.
